Chapter 24 - Adventurers (Patreon)

Chapter 24

Salran Mountains, Starnor Imperial Border Territories

Frontier town of Kaisersgrenze

"Yes, but you see, you need to continuously-" Martin trailed off as someone knocked on the door, before stepping into the shop. "Yes ?"

"Master Fini's compliment sir, but he has assembled the adventuring party and gotten the blessing of the guild. If you and your friend would care to meet him at the town's gates ?"

"Of course !" Martin looked at Airah, who smiled. "Well, I suppose the lesson is cut short then. Let's avoid keeping our friend waiting !"

It took less than ten minutes to make their way to the town's gates. Airah's eyebrow rose as she saw the group waiting for them. There was Isidoro, of course, and a thinner man dressed similarly to him but holding a clipboard and a quill, which looked weird as hell, probably a representative of his guild, and four people who Airah assumed to be adventurers.

If they were, they looked the par. The first one was a young man in what looked like half plate armor, supplemented by leather armor pieces, with a sword and a pretty massive shield. The second was a grizzled woman with a bow on her back and light leather armor, probably their equivalent of a ranger. The third was a scarred man wearing armor oddly reminescent of the guards, and the last and final adventurer was an absurdly young looking woman with a grimoire in her hands and ensconced in faintly glowing robes.

"Greetings !" Said Airah as she approached, and everyone turned towards her and Martin. She saw the adventurers sizing her up -or, in the case of the young mage and the half plate fighter, staring at her chest-, and she returned their gazes without blinking. The young mage at least had to good grace to blush, while the half plate fighter only smiled sheepishly. "So you're the adventurers Martin told me about."

"And you are the freelance everyone in the town is talking about." Answered the man in the military armor, obviously the leader of the party. "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you don't look like much."

"Oh I can believe that. I'm wearing my travel clothes, not my combat armor." And since she privileged comfort over anything else, and she was virtually immune to branches and such, her 'travel clothes' were effectively a sports bra and pants. "But don't worry, I only need a few minutes to switch."

"Very well." He shrugged. "I know the guards here, they don't tend to exagerate much. So if they say you live up to your reputation, then I'll take their word for it."

"Thank you."

"Thank you, if you're as good as they say."

Airah smiled, and the guild representative cleared his throat.

"Yes, well, that is all very good, but let us get down to business." He squinted at his clipboard. "You are all five hereby contracted by the merchants guild of Trivaldi to recover a stolen wagon and its goods, its mana crystal cargo especially. The guild will pay 50 gold each for a successful return of the crystals, with an additional 15 gold for the wagon, and 30 for the rest of the cargo, for a grand total of 95 gold per person. Is that satisfactory ?"

The adventurers nodded, and Airah followed suit.

"Very good. The wagon was stolen fifteen kilometers from the town, alongside the northern high road." Airah suppressed a snort. From what she'd seen the 'northern high road' was basically a pile of old pavements, especially compared to the western bound high road, which linked the different villages alongside the river to the city itself, as the river was basically impossible to navigate, thanks to various rapids and other obstacles. "Given the fact that they stole the whole wagons, the traces should not be too hard to follow to their camps, and it has been a short enough time that the bandits would not have the opportunity to leave yet. So you should be able to take them out in fairly short order."

"Right. We'll do that little thing." Said the adventurers' leader, who reminded Airah more and more of a retired NCO of some sort. "We'll depart immediately." He looked at Airah. "Unless the freelancer needs to do something in town first ?"

The dragon shook her head.

"Nope, I'm all good."

"Alright then. Let's not waste anyone's time ! Move out !"

*****

"So…why didn't you sign up with the guild ?" Asked the half plate adventurer as they walked alongside the high road.

"I beg your pardon ?" Said Airah as she looked at him.

"I mean, given what we've heard you'd obviously pass the tests. So why didn't you sign up ?"

"Because there are no guild offices near Kaisersgrenze ?" It had been one of the things she'd asked Martin about. "And I honestly have too much to do to undertake a journey to the Republic or further into the Empire to sign up."

"Why ? I mean it's just a few bandits."

"When those 'few bandits' have pillaged, raped or murdered dozens of people in a single week, you start to care, believe me. Especially if you know some of those people." Although in her case that was after they'd been captured.

That shut the adventurer up, and caused the leader to chuckle.

"Well, I see that you have some spirit. And I agree with your priorities, to say the least." He looked at her approvingly. "Too many adventurers forget where they came from, and the plight of the little people." He gave his comrade a reproving glance. "Still, the guild offers many advantages, you might want to give it a look once the situation here has calmed down somewhat."

"I'll be sure to consider it at any rate." If nothing else, her knowledge of guild on Old Earth was pretty clear that they did not like freelance competition, to say the least. "Any recommendations on where to go ?"

"The Republic's guild halls are pretty good, but the trek across the mountains suck. Given the train, I'd heavily recommend heading to the city of Bergiger-Horizont." Airah's translation routine processed the words for a second, and the dragon winced internally. Man, these people sucked at giving their cities imaginative names as much as those back on Earth ! It was embarrassing, really. "The guild hall there is pretty good, and they're used to having adventurers coming in to sign up from the frontier, or take quests."

"Are the quests well paying at least ?"

"Depends on your rank. But usually yes, very well. The guild takes its cut, obviously, but there's never enough licensed adventurers to go around, so the people who want something done right have to put the price. Or they can resort to freelancers, but that can get ugly. No offense, but most people who do freelance adventuring usually couldn't pass the guild's test, and it tends not to end well."

"I can imagine, yes."

They continued walking in silence for a few minutes, before the leader spoke up again.

"So, these bandits, what are they like ?"

"Weird. As in, really weird. Some of them are borderline military. Weapons and armor almost as good as the baroness' troops, with training and formations to match. But the rest are…odd. Some of them are what you'd expect, pretty decent fighters individually, with rag tag equipment and little to no coordination. But some of the more recent groups are pathetic, literal street gangs in the middle of the wilderness, they barely understand the concept of ambushes, and most get trampled on by even the village militias."

"Uh, that's odd. Any idea why that is ?"

"Yes…but that's between me and the baroness."

The leader gave her a sharp look, before nodding.

"I see…well, my name's Reginald. Don't call me Regi. These here are Josh." He gestured at the half plate adventurer, who waved. "Lily." The ranger, who simply nodded. "And Ylis." This time the mage, who smiled shyly. "We call ourselves 'the swords of tomorrow'. Lofty title, I know, but it has a certain ring to it." He looked at her questioning gaze and smiled. "Thought it'd only be polite to introduce ourselves. So have you been here long ?"

"Not really, only a few months. But I've been moving about the area a lot, although usually only further west."

"Right, towards Warg Valley ? I heard you took down a Warg by yourself."

"Yes, well to be fair it was stupid enough to pounce at me while my back was to a wall. It wasn't so hard to take out when I dodged out of the way and it got a mouthful of granite." It was a lie of course, but very close to reality, all things considered.

Reginald laughed.

"I see. Well, I won't hold it against you, being an adventurer is all about taking opportunities and what luck gives you after all."

"So I've noticed. Although you won't mind if I insist on making my own luck whenever possible."

"I'd be extremely worried if that wasn't the case." He held up his hand, and everyone stepped. "And I believe we are here." He gestured at the road in front of them, and Airah nodded. There were some faint traces of a fight, and of a wagon being unceremoniously driven onto what looked like a side road. "Time to start the hunt. Lily, you're up !"

"Right away." Said the ranger as she cautiously approached the secondary road, before carefully examining it. "Fresh tracks. About the time the quill pusher said it was. One wagon…twelve bandits. Maybe fourteen. Hard to tell."

Airah's eyebrows rose. Stellyra wasn't programmed for this specifically, but she could have gotten her a similar estimate -was feeding her her own estimate via a holographic screen at the corner of her vision actually-, but even she wouldn't have done it as fast…and she was an AI by the stars !

"Mmmhhh, that's a fair bit. Probably more up at their camp as well." Reginald unsheathed his sword, quickly followed by Josh. "Alright, let's advance into the forest and shadow the road, combat recon formation." Which apparently involved having Lily in the front, with the two fighters shadowing her a few meters back, and the mage staying behind them. "You should probably join us at the back, Airah."

"I'm not that good at moving stealthily, but I am pretty good at recon." She shrugged. "But you're the boss." The dragon put herself next to the mage, and smiled reassuringly at her, before pulling out her bow and arrows from her bag of holding. "Ready."

"Alright then, let's move !"

*****

Lily held up her hand, and everyone froze, before gesturing to them to join her.

They started forward, and Airah belatedly realized that one of the reasons for the half plate worn by Josh had to be for stealth. The leather parts muffled any metallic clinking quite well.

It took only a few seconds to catch up with the ranger, who pointed at the distance, where faint movement could be seen.

"Looks like their camp. And four sentries." Whispered the ranger as she pointed out the guards, two of them clear as day on the road, while the others were far better hidden in the forest around it. Neither appeared to be paying much attention, with one of the 'hidden' sentries busy noisily snacking on something, and the two obvious ones regularly looking back towards the camp.

"Five." Corrected Airah, before pointing towards a barely discernable form in the underbrush, which she herself would never have caught without Stellyra highlighting him. The ranger nodded, clearly impressed. "And around two dozen in the camp."

"You have good eyes." Whispered the ranger, and Airah smiled.

"I prefer to say that I had good teachers." Or, in this case an AI who was busy putting up a makeshift targeting overlay. She hadn't started up with it, but Stellyra had been quite busy coding programs to help them, when she wasn't teasing her partner or helping her learn magic that was. The overlay was one of them.

"You'll have to introduce me to them sometime." Lily turned towards Reginald. "Your call boss."

"You and Airah, take out the sentries, quietly if possible. Josh and Yris, you're with me, we're going to punch straight in as soon as the way is clear or the alarm is raised. Yris, I want you to prepare a lightning bolt, we'll draw their attention while you cast."

The mage swallowed, but nodded firmly.

"Y-Yes boss."

"Alright, let's move swords of tomorrow !"